


Never judge a book by it's cover (or Steve Rogers by his blushes)

by Fiora



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: (at least a little bit at the beginning), Bruce suffers silently, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, I need more beardy!Steve, Shy Steve Rogers, Steve has the hots for Darcy, Steve is not so innocent as everyone thinks, Tony is the trolliest troll, and self doubts as big as Jupiter, beardy!steve, he just blushes easily, i don't really know what i'm doing, or is he really shy?, sometimes tagging confuses me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 07:48:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2221209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiora/pseuds/Fiora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Are you really blushing Steve? Really? So are the stories true and you‘re a virgin? Pure and innocent as the driven snow? If so we have to change that…”</p>
<p>“Leave him alone,” Bruce interjects before Tony can press him any further and Steve is really thankful that Tony listens to Bruce. Even though Stark still looks at him like he is planning something.</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p>Steve blushes easily. And Tony assumes that Captain America is pure as the driven snow. Well, Captain America might be. But Steve Rogers? He's just a private person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Everything is the same (just a litle bit different)

** Chapter 1: Everything is the same (just a little bit different) **

_(Pre-Captain America – The Winter Soldier)_

It is really his own fault, because he never bothers to correct the assumptions. So when Steve is out with Tony and Bruce for lunch and the waitress was brushing her breasts against him and he cannot help but blush…. Tony sees it and goes after it with the determination of a pit bull.

(After the battle of New York Tony had offered all Avengers apartments in the newly renovated tower, and while everyone had taken him up on his offer, just Bruce and Steve are living there regularly at the moment. The three of them liked eating out or ordering in. The only one able to cook well is Bruce – and theoretically Pepper but she is busy with Stark Industries most of the time.)

After the waitress has disappeared again, Tony cannot help but remark: “Why so shy, Cap? She totally had the hots for you? Come on, get her number!”

Steve just shakes his head and concentrates on his plate. He would never tell Tony, or anyone else, but he thought about the soft curves that were pressed against him and how they would feel under his hands.

“Are you really blushing Steve? Really? So are the stories true and you‘re a virgin? Pure and innocent as the driven snow? If so we have to change that…”

“Leave him alone,” Bruce interjects before Tony can press him any further and Steve is really thankful that Tony listens to Bruce. Even though Stark still looks at him like he is planning something.

~*~

Steve really tries not to look at most of the women living with him, but he hasn't shared living quarters with a woman since the USO tour and that was... different, in many ways. (And even more challenging than his current situation. With all the recent changes his body had gone through, he had been able to see color normally for the first time in his life. And really seeing all those beautiful women for the first time in his life? Steve had found it overwhelming. The USO girls were also walking around in just their underwear before the show. There was either a point where they had just forgotten Steve was there or where they didn't care anymore, he isn't entirely sure. But all this creamy skin, legs that would not end and ruby-red lips, coupled with the flirty remarks they threw at him all the time…these months were truly a lesson in self-control. Steve still wonders how he didn’t run around with a red face and a raging erection all the time.)

Just because he thinks about a woman, or is ... inspired by one doesn't mean he wants more. But Steve can appreciate the female form and when Pepper walked into the labs today (Tony wants to make him a new uniform and they have to test several materials) with her high heels and that white dress, he involuntarily had to think how perfectly the shoes sculpt her legs and how the dress accentuates her form. With her gorgeous red hair and the fair skin she reminds him of a pre-Raphaelite painting.

There is no denying that Pepper is a beautiful woman and the artist in him wants to paint her. Steve is hesitant to ask her to pose for him though, they don't know each other well enough yet and while Pepper is a nice dame, he fears it would offend her. (He’s also convinced that he couldn’t do her justice. Steve knows his fretting about asking her would be pointless anyway. He couldn’t do her justice and Pepper knows a lot about art, she’d probably be disappointed by his attempts.)

~*~

Tony hasn’t forgotten his mission to introduce Steve into “the world of carnal delights” (Steve had rolled his eyes so hard at this), so one evening Steve, Bruce and Rhodey are dragged out to a strip club by Tony.

It isn’t like the clubs he’s been with Bucky before and during the war. But well, this is Tony Stark and he prefers the high-class establishments. Steve secretly finds it pretty funny, that Tony thinks him an absolute innocent with women. He fought in the Second World War and the establishments in Paris and London were not a place were any innocence was preserved. And he also knew Tony’s father, Howard was such a ladies man, some of the parties he threw got pretty wild…

He and Rhodey rarely exchanged a lot of words, but from what he knows of him he is a very friendly, if not a bit reserved guy. Reserved at least compared to Tony.

Even though Tony doesn’t want to hear it (from what Steve gathered his relationship with Howard was rocky at best), Tony and his father are more alike than they’d probably admit. Tony is outgoing, brilliant and visionary, and has the tendency to go a bit over the board sometimes. Totally like Howard.

In a way Tony helps Steve adjust a bit to the modern world, dragging him out with other people and forcing him to interact more. But that doesn’t mean that Steve has to like all of Tony’s attempts to get him to socialize. Bruce looks as pained by all this as Steve feels, so at least they can suffer through this together.

When they arrive at the club (Tony - thankfully - planned for them to go through the back door), they are led into a private room that and a nice young lady is taking their orders. She is dressed in just some fancy underwear and Steve tries- with moderately good success - to focus on her face.

After their drinks have arrived, their master planner, and the only one of them who seems to be keen on the evening, excuses himself to “organize something”. Steve doesn’t want to ponder on what one has to organize while being in a strip club.

“We’re got to make it a night, you’ll never forget, Spangles! Your first time with naked women! I’m feeling kind of proud, like a father!”

Tony slaps Steve’s shoulder and saunters off. Bruce sighs and glances accusingly at Steve, who blushes beet red.

So Steve…,” Rhodey begins as soon as Tony was around the corner, “with Tony not here for the moment, there is something I want to know. You’ve been stationed in London during the war. And let me tell you, there are lots of stories about you, the Howling Commandos and a lot of the stuff you did. What I want to know: Are the stories about the Parker & Hollingsworth Club true?”

Oh boy, that’s not what he had expected. It’s no wonder that the stories about club’s parties have been passed on, but Steve firmly believes in the idea that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Or London in this case.

“Well…I don’t know what you’ve been told, but it was pretty amazing. Howard knew how to throw a party.”

Rhodey smiles widely. “Hah, I knew that. Like father, like son.”

Bruce snorts in his beer, but remains silent otherwise. Steve has the vague impression that Bruce knows, or at least suspects, but is nice enough not to tell Tony.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Don’t ever tell him that, he’d hate it.” Steve had figured that out already for himself. “Is the story about the monkey true?”

“Monkey?”

“As far as stories go there was a trained monkey at that club. For special… services.”

Whatever that specific rumor goes, Steve doesn’t want to know. It has the potential to be a bit disturbing. “Oh…no, that isn’t true.”

“And the story that Josephine Baker gave an exclusive performance?”

Just thinking about it made Steve blush to the roots of his hair. Again. He swears he feels his cheeks glowing. “Well,… yes. Miss Baker was kind enough to perform for us once.”

“And is it true, that Howard invited the ladies of the Windmill theatre once?

“Ahm…” But there is no time for the answer, because Tony is back.

“So Stevie boy! Time to watch some world class strippers on our own! I got us an exclusive gig with some of the best girls here. And that is just the beginning of this evening! I’ve got a lot in store for us this evening! Maybe you’ll get laid!”

As if on cue the small stage gets illuminated and an unfortunately way to familiar tune begins.

“Don’t worry,” Rhodey whispers, in a moment when Tony is distracted by the show. “If anything happens or this is spiraling out of control, I’ve got Pepper’s number on speed dial.”

Which is probably the most reassuring thing Rhodey could have said in the given situation. Steve can’t believe that Tony got those girls to perform to “The star-spangled man with a plan”.

~*~

A few weeks later he is temporarily assigned to Washington on Fury’s suggestions and he is living alone again. It’s a lot less distracting, but he kind of misses the tower and everyone living there. (The companionship mostly. As annoying as Tony is sometimes, Steve always has the feeling that he cares.) At least Natasha is in the same boat as him and she visits every few days. They are being teamed up a lot recently, while Clint is on a deep cover mission in some country of the former Soviet Union. (He wasn’t allowed to tell them much; Steve suspects that Natasha knows exactly where Clint is. Somehow she always knows stuff like that.)

One of his new neighbors occupies his thoughts sometimes, Sharon from next-door who is a nurse and was absolutely sweet when he moved in. (She baked him cookies and always smiles at him when they meet.)

But he has hardly any time to meet, much less go out with someone; he works so much at the moment. Right now he’s on a mission with Natasha in the Caribbean and they have to pose as a couple. (He had to grow a full beard for this whole thing, so that he isn’t recognized. It’s a bit weird to look into the mirror right now.)

They are sharing a room and a bed (well, they are trying to convince everyone that they are a power couple that specializes in money laundering…), and yesterday evening after their arrival he had offered to sleep on the floor, but Natasha was having none of that. She had given Steve her “Are –you –fucking–kidding -me?!”look, and he had slipped into the bed next to her. Now, in the morning, he and Natasha are somewhat embraced. Her back is at his front, his face in her hair (it smells so good) and his left arm is wrapped around her, resting just below her breasts (and when he woke up and flexed a bit he brushed against them. They were so soft and fit perfectly in his hands, he misses having a woman in his bed but everything is so difficult at the moment…) and he just can’t think of a way how to entangle himself from her without waking her.

“I can hear you thinking really hard.” Steve twitches a bit, when he hears Natasha’s voice. She turns around in his arms and looks in his face. He can practically feel his cheeks glowing.

“No need to be embarrassed. You’re a cuddler. That’s kind of sweet.” She shifts again, brushes against his erection and he closes his eyes hoping to be swallowed by the ground.

Steve hears Natasha’s silvery laughter, but he still cannot bring himself to look at her. If he isn’t opening his eyes, she might stop asking.

“It’s ok, no need to be embarrassed. You should get a girlfriend, you know. Have more of a social life.”

Steve finally opens his eyes and looks at her, she is smiling but not laughing at him. It’s a kind smile.

“Where would I find the time? I’m not meeting that many women on a regular basis.”

“You do realize that, when it comes to dating you could take your pick from almost every one of the women working at SHIELD? And a few of the men too? And if it’s just about sex… well you’d also find someone.”

“I know.”

“You know, Stark was trying to bet with Clint if you are a virgin…”

Steve just groans. He refuses to answer questions like this on principle.And he was always a firm believer that a gentleman should stay quiet about things like this.

***

A little while later during the mission, Natasha begins to shoot him this look. (Steve cannot really describe it, but he thinks it says “There is something about you that you’re not telling but I’ll find out anyway.”)

They have been acting like a couple for almost a week, sharing kisses, being close to each other for almost every minute of the day, so that he his hands have memorized some parts of her due to the constant touching, and Steve is trying his best to keep his thoughts under control. He likes Natasha a lot as a friend, but she is a beautiful woman and thankfully his thoughts are something that she will never know. Thankfully everything ends tomorrow; they have gathered enough intel for the moment. The only task left is to get the encrypted data that their main target has in his safe. Natasha has excused herself, pretending to be tipsy and is getting the usb-stick out of the safe at the moment, because she’s a lot better at the safe-cracking stuff, while he is making fake conversations about Stefan and Nan Rushs’ ability to wash even the dirtiest money snow white. (He drank six beers and as many glasses of whiskey with his supposed customers, so he has to fake being drunk, too.)

When Steve’s phone is beeping, he is a bit surprised. No one has his alias’s number, except Natasha and two people from SHIELD. He sees that Natasha orders him into one of the rooms upstairs.

“I’ve gotta go,” he excuses himself, slurring a bit. “The wife’s calling for me.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and the other men laugh knowingly.

When he arrives at the room, Natasha comes round the next corner giggling like a loon. It makes the security people that are stationed all around the house look at her exasperatedly, but they seem to be used to drunken people strolling around the house in general.

Natasha throws herself into his arms and begins to kiss him like her life depends on it. When she moves to his neck and then ear, she whispers: “Just play along.”

Together they stumble into the room and when they door slams closed after them… Natasha begins to undress super quickly, while he just stands there. When she removes her bra, he wants to avert his eyes but a second later Nat is standing in front of him opening his shirt.

“Strip! Come on,” she whispers. “The alarm will go off in a few minutes and if we pretend to be fucking no one will suspect us!”

Steve strips down to his boxer briefs as fast as he can and gets onto the bed, his weapon hidden in the covers that are facing away from the door. Natasha climbs on him and begins to kiss him again. She also grabs his free hand and puts it on her breasts.

“But…”

“Touch me! It’s ok, we’ve got to make it real.” She moves to kiss him again and, God, this is really testing Steve’s control. He lets his hands wander over her body, from the swell of her hips upwards… The way she moves on top of him, how she feels under his hands, Nat’s hand in his hair, her little gasp when he cups her breast…Steve knows he’ll dream about that for weeks.

The alarm goes off a few minutes later and when some of the security guys come in, Steve just pulls Nat down to his face and kisses her like his life depends on it. When they see Natasha and him half naked on the bed... They back out pretty quickly.

When they are sitting in the car to the airport the next day Nat smirks every time he looks at her.

“What?” he asks after the third time.

“You know…Tony really believes you’re all innocent and get flustered just by being close to a woman. But after this week and all that touching? If you’re really so innocent as everyone believes, I’ll eat my hat.”

He manages to smile at her, feeling a bit uncomfortable, but he doesn’t say anything.

Thankfully Nat never brings it up again after that and doesn’t say anything to anyone else, but a few weeks after the op she begins trying to set him up with various women. He declines politely every time.


	2. Chapter 2: A man on a mission (or several; it’s confusing)

** Chapter 2: A man on a mission (or several; it’s confusing) **

After everything went downhill with SHIELD, Steve moves back to New York. Tony had told him that his apartment at the Avengers Tower would always be open for him and before he and Sam go and search for Bucky, Steve has to recuperate, strategize and maybe employ Tony’s help. Nat is there too, Clint comes a few weeks after the whole disaster with SHIELD having been undercover somewhere in a remote part of Russia. Thankfully Natasha stops with all the dating suggestions, but her walking around in the gym, brushing against him, during the training and after? Steve blushes every time he remembers their time as a “couple”. (Sometimes he thinks she does it deliberately.)

What is a lot worse though is Tony and his continuing attempts to either embarrass Steve horribly or trying to find out if he’s still a virgin. Sometimes both.

But when it comes to everything else, Tony is the most helpful and supportive person to be around. He has repaired and updated Sam’s wing pack, has begun organizing them a basic support team stationed in New York and is developing a new suit and equipment for Steve, next to his normal tinkering and developing. Furthermore he helps Pepper to go through Stark Industries with a very fine comb to wipe out anyone with ties to HYDRA and analyzes the SHIELD data that was released. (Well, Jarvis does it and Tony looks at the daily summary.) How he does that when the day has only 24 hours remains a bit of a mystery to Steve, but that is Tony Stark for you.

~*~

When Doctor Foster and Miss Lewis move into the tower with Thor, approximately a week after he moved back from Washington, everyone helps with the equipment for her lab.

Steve is immediately captivated by Miss Lewis, she moves through the room like she owns it, ordering everyone around, telling where everything has to be, coordinating the food order for their break and is even able to get Stark to calm down. (Tony was absurdly excited about having yet another scientist in the tower and spent the whole week before their arrival reading up on Dr. Foster’s work and astrophysics in general. Pepper had patted his arm every time he explained Dr. Foster’s theories during dinner. And he suspects Bruce might appreciate a break from science with Tony, with another scientist in the tower, Tony won’t be coming to him all the time.)

After they have set everything up in so far that work is possible, Tony, Bruce and Dr. Foster immediately get into a discussion about the construction of an interdimensional portal and it seems like they will be spending some time with that. Everyone else has left already (Thor went into the gym with Clint and Natasha, Pepper back to work) and he feels a little stupid standing around.

When someone tugs at his sleeve he turns around. It is Miss Lewis.

“You’ve been living here for a while, haven’t you? Care to show me a bit around? In the tower and outside?” She beams at him and he automatically has to smile back.

“Yes, with pleasure, Miss Lewis.”

“Oh call me Darcy. Miss Lewis makes me feel like my grandaunt Sarah... and while she was a terrific old lady, she was also totally bananas.”

When he answers, “Alright, call me Steve then”, she takes his arm, which surprises him a bit. Both the fact that she is so tactile and that he answers her so quickly, he has been somewhat reluctant to interact with people since he woke up and now after everything that happened with SHIELD – even more so.

“Lead the way then, Captain Steve.”

He shows her around, the communal places, like the gym and the game room for the Avengers and friends, her apartment in the tower and the nice café around the corner and she hardly lets go of his arm the whole time. Steve really enjoys the closeness. Darcy is a ball of energy, swirling around in her dress in Tony’s massively designed common rooms (it covers her from the neck to her knees, but when she twirls it shows her body off marvelously), smiling at everyone they meet.

They were out and about for over two hours and when he brings her back to her apartment, he feels better than he has in weeks. Her good mood and optimism are infectious.

“I hope it was helpful.”

“Are you kidding? That was awesome!” She hugs him, which surprises him again. After a second or two, when he doesn’t know what to do, he hugs her back. (Oh and it feels so good. Steve hasn’t had close, voluntary contact like this with anyone since he awoke after his 70 year-long nap. The time with Natasha as his fake-wife was on the job and while he considers her a good friend, he doesn’t count that in.) He buries his face in her hair, breathing in deeply. (Her hair smells great and feels very soft.) Darcy’s body is pressed against his and he really hopes his own body doesn’t react to that. He breathes in again and involuntarily his arms around her tighten a bit. She yelps and whispers “Easy there.” Steve lets go immediately.

“I…I…I’m so sorry,” he stammers. “I didn’t… I… sometimes I forget about the strength.”

“You’re very sweet. Things happen. No big deal.”

Raising herself on her tiptoes she presses a peck to his cheek.

“See you around!” She disappears into her apartment and Steve… he is amazed and his right hand automatically goes to his cheek, right where she placed her lips.

When he steps into the elevator to his floor, his hand is still on that spot.

When Steve lies in bed that night he thinks about Miss… Darcy and the way her body felt against his when she hugged him, her soft lips against his cheek and the way that dress looked on her body. It was not revealing in any way, but, God, the dark blue fabric looked amazing against her pale skin and her hair. He wants to bury his face in it, smelling it, because yesterday she smelled slightly like flowers and he wants to know if it was her hair or her skin. And those red, kissable lips… This night he also dreams about Darcy for the first time and when she sits in the communal kitchen the next morning, he has to think about the dreams and what they are doing in them and blushes. (Steve is thankful that he has such an innocent reputation. So no one suspects that he thinks about stripping Darcy out of her clothes and taking her right there on the kitchen counter.)

She just smiles and does not seem to notice; then she offers him coffee and pancakes. They are amazingly good and he tells her so. After she makes him some more and Steve tells Darcy again that they are the best he ever had, she pats his head and calls him adorable before she gets to work. When Natasha and Clint come in he still has a dopey smile on his face that doesn’t seem to disappear for the rest of the day. (Clint doesn’t really comment on it, but Natasha keeps looking at him the whole day, like she almost has the answer on a particular difficult problem. It’s a bit unnerving.)

~*~

The thing is: When he joined SHIELD they gave him not only a very short overview over the last 70 years, but one of the lessons was about ethical conduct and sexual harassment at the workplace. Maria Hill, who was Fury’s right hand back then and is the leader of their tactical and technical reinforcement team now, gave it to him. (Steve finds her incredibly competent, back then when she was Fury’s right hand and now working with Tony. Sometimes she reminds him of Peggy with her attitude.)

He knows a lot has changed since he went into the ice and some of the lines Bucky used on the ladies are considered inappropriate now (except in a closer relationship). And the stuff Steve was told about? Inappropriate touching, lascivious comments and pressuring a woman despite her refusal? He would never do that. But he feels that he does violate some of the rules anyway. Sometimes he can hardly take his eyes of Natasha, when she is walking around in the tower with her casual attitude and her beautiful hair. He remembers vividly how her hair smells and how her body felt against his own. Or Dr. Foster (he’s supposed to call her Jane), who is such an energetic person and almost always when he sees her she is moving animatedly, her face alight with passion about her work (and Thor). Her skin is so porcelain like and her lips are perfectly shaped… looking away is hard sometimes. It’s similar with Pepper, who looks like a goddess so often. She is tall and lithe, whereas Nat is a bit shorter and a lot stronger and Jane is petite and elfin like.

There are so many women working in the tower and he has looked at so many of them and thought about the way they walk, or talk. Or how their hair looks in the sunlight shining through the windows. Or how good their legs look in those skirts and high-heels…

And when Darcy walks past him with her cherry red lips, her hips swaying softly with her walk…. sometimes he can hardly control himself and his eyes follow her figure down the hallway. And he lies awake again at night imaging her on top of him with those gorgeous hips and her beautiful mouth just for his eyes.

Or right now. His debriefing with Maria about SHIELD’s sparse knowledge about Hydra’s former super weapon “The Winter Soldier” is frustrating. Most of the information is based on rumors and unconfirmed sightings and Maria had scarcely come up with new information. Wherever Bucky is hiding now, he is either capable of evading almost everyone and everything or he must have been taken in by a Hydra cell again.

Because there is so little news his mind starts to wander. And tThe way Maria is standing in front of the huge map and shows him several suspected Hydra hiding places? God, he thinks of Peggy. Of course these two women just share a superficial physical resemblance with the dark hair and the fair skin, but character wise they could be sisters. Sometimes when he sees her from the corner of his eyes, he thinks she is Peggy.

(He feels like such a mess right now. All those complicated feelings that came with the realization that his best friend, his brother was still alive but not recognizing him. But also with the distraction of all those women around him, Steve hasn’t been around so many women since the USO tour and finds it terribly confusing. And Darcy. Especially Darcy, walking around like she just stepped out one of his dreams…)

~*~

Over the next two weeks he runs into Darcy practically every day.

She hugs everyone, he observes. She falls asleep leaning on Thor’s shoulder on the couch while introducing him to “some important part of Midgardian culture”, sometimes kisses Bruce and Tony on the cheek for handing in the correct paperwork and following her orders for a break. She pokes Jane and drags her to much needed breaks, they hug enthusiastically when Jane makes a new step in her work. She establishes a friendship with Clint almost immediately and the two of them can often be found in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes or playing games in Tony’s over-the-top game room. She also embraces Sam into their superhero-community, the two of them exchanging books every few days and having lengthy discussions about what they’ve just read.

Even Natasha accepts Darcy’s hugs, even though she circumvents them a little bit by teaching Darcy the basics of self-defense, which is amazing considering how suspicious Nat normally is with people she hardly knows. Granted, Nat is probably also a bit flattered by Darcy’s barely concealed hero-worship, because when these two met for the first time? Steve had heard her whispering to Jane about the “total amazingness of meeting THE BLACK WIDOW”. (But he discovered in her first days at the tower that Darcy is shameless when it comes to her co-inhabitants and their super hero identities. She owns multiple Avengers-themed t-shirts, which flatters especially Tony immensely. Bruce is still flabbergasted that someone wants to wear a t-shirt with the HULK on it. Thor is always ecstatic when he sees someone with his markings, but with Darcy it is special. The God declared her his “shield sister” and Darcy got him some his own Avengers t-shirts. Additionally with a shirt that has a drawing of her own face on it, as well as one with a version of Jane Foster. Those has become Thor’s favorite shirts and he wears them at least once a week. Clint and Nat do not seem to be bothered by it. But Steve? He doesn’t really know what to feel. With most of the Captain America merchandise he feels embarrassed or indifferent. But the first time he sees Darcy wearing his shield on her shirt, he feels oddly proud.)

And with him? She always smiles at him, has made him food several times and Darcy just doesn’t seem to care that he is famous and was born in 1918. (He’s 29 not 95, thank you very much Tony!) Darcy makes him feel better. (And Lord, she is gorgeous! He can hardly stop looking at her and notices every little detail while he paints her into his little sketchbook.)

She treats everyone like a normal person. So he isn’t special and he is a bit disappointed about that. But in a way Steve is used to that. Gorgeous dames were never very keen on him before. Before everything only Bucky would capture their interests… After Dr. Erskine and Howard made him into a super soldier the women were flocking around him a lot more, and while he enjoyed it, it always felt a bit weird. He knew they were mostly admiring his chemically enhanced physique and not really him. (And even though he didn’t like that kind of behavior back then and was told that people can be sued for sexual harassment nowadays, like Tony had at times, he cannot stop dreaming up all these inappropriate fantasies about Darcy. Steve isn’t one iota better than all these women that were staring at his body in the past and present and he feels ashamed about it, but he lusts after Darcy like a pubescent school boy.)

Steve knows that he and Sam will restart their search for Bucky next week, so it is useless to fret over his puppy love for Darcy. Firstly because he’s going be abroad for the next few months probably, secondly because she’d undoubtedly never go out with him anyway.

~*~

Steve feels bad for objectifying his female colleagues, he doesn't mean to think all that about some of them but most of the time he cannot help it. Thankfully he has himself under control most of the time, but in some situations his thoughts just drift into inappropriate territory.

Last week when he sparred with Natasha, she had her thighs around his neck and he had begun to think how they would feel if they weren't sparring. Her thighs wrapped around his hands, both of them naked and him between them kissing…

(Natasha won this round, when he was distracted thinking about her thighs in a non-lethal way, she pinned him to the ground. Normally he wouldn't have a problem continuing a fight after such a move, at least not when sparring with other people except Thor, but Natasha is really strong. Steve suspects that she received some version of the serum, but they don't talk about that.)

Afterwards Natasha had asked him, why he was not paying enough attention and it's true, Steve had countered similar moves by her before during training, but he murmurs an excuse. And when she mocks him later for being afraid of having a woman’s thighs around his head?

He blushes fiercely and tries to ignore the mental images her words have conjured.

“I don’t really care for that during sparring, but I imagine Darcy wouldn’t mind having you between her thighs every now and then.”

And with that Natasha disappears into the shower, leaving Steve absolutely perplexed. (And painfully aroused at the image Natasha has conjured.)

~*~

It is not like Steve always thinks about sex when he sees a beautiful woman. But sometimes it just happens.

Sometimes it's also more about intimacy than sex. Sometimes it’s just about being close to someone you love and trust implicitly.

When he was in Tony's lab this morning to help Tony to test Steve’s new suit and the new equipment for his search for Bucky around the world, Pepper came in before her first meeting.

Steve tried to look away to give them privacy, but he was not 100% successful, so he saw Pepper whispering into Tony's ear, Tony's smile at whatever she said and the soft kiss they shared before Pepper had to get to work.

And Steve wants exactly that. Not with Pepper (heaven forbid, Tony would kill him for that and he'd be right in doing so. Steve would also never make the moves on a woman that is in a relationship, it just isn't right), but he thinks about him and Darcy being like that. Lying in bed in the morning together, how Darcy would look nude in the dim morning light (Steve imagines that she looks beautiful, but he always thinks she does), about her kissing him like Pepper kissed Tony, soft and caring, and full of love.

Thankfully he does not seem to wear his thoughts for everyone to see this time, but Tony asks him if the new helmet chafes a bit around the ears. (It doesn’t, but Tony doesn’t have to know, so Steve lets him tinker a bit more with his new cowl and just declares it a perfect fit a good 20 minutes later.)

~*~

When he and Sam take off to search for Bucky, he hasn’t been able to summon his courage to ask Darcy out. Natasha observed them during his last dinner with the others and when they left she had given him “the eyebrow”. (And yes, he wished that Darcy played a bigger part in his life. She was with everyone else when he and Sam said their goodbyes, but she had just smiled and wished them good luck. A small part in him wishes that he would have been able to kiss her goodbye, like some of the guys he observed at the docks when they were shipped out to Europe in 1942. And that he’d be able to take her picture with him. And that when he comes back, she would smile at him and throw himself into his arms and she would kiss him, with those soft-looking, gorgeous red lips he thinks about all the time. It’s a beautiful fantasy.)

Barely 30 minutes after their start, Sam switches off the music in the car and turns to Steve. “So … what’s with you and Darcy?”

Determined not to give away his stupid little crush and the accompanying immense physical attraction (and let’s face it, he dreamt about her basically every night since their first meeting and woke up rock hard and with images of Darcy and him together every morning), he keeps his eyes on the road. “Nothing.”

Sam lets out a huff. “Nothing, my ass. You’ve been staring at her most of the time like she is your salvation or something. If I didn’t know you like I do, I’d advice that girl to take care.”

Steve doesn’t really know what to say. And he hopes that Darcy never noticed that.

After a short pause Sam continues: “You should do something about it. Ask her out. I bet she’d say yes.”

Steve kind of doubts that but hums something indistinct. “She’s got better things to do than concern herself with me. And I have to focus on looking for Bucky. Everything else… comes when it comes.”

“Natasha is right, you’re kind of an idiot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is finally done! It took ages, because it didn't sound right or something was slightly off...  
> Hope you like it though :)  
> (Again lots of thanks to Amerna for editing. All mistakes left are mine.)


	3. Chapter 3: Moving forward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's finished! Finally!  
> But I'm already thinking about re-working it? Ugh, I don't know.
> 
> Hope you like it!  
> Oh and: 27 bookmarks & over 2000 hits -- wooohooo!  
> As always: Thanks to Amerna for correcting and commenting. Every mistake left is mine, no one of us is a native speaker of English ;)

** Chapter 3: Moving forward **

_After Bucky is back to normal_

The whole process of finding Bucky and helping him to get a grip on the fact that “Yes, it really is 2015 now” was exhausting, and him being wiped and put in and out of cryostasis so often that he cannot really count them makes Steve angry, and Bucky is furious about that as well. Steve having to hold Bucky back from going on a murder rampage around the globe to extinguish every HYDRA base he remembers is draining as well. (They will go out to continue hunting HYDRA a few months after their return to the tower, but they didn’t realize that at this point.) Mainly of course for Bucky, who has to deal with the emotional aftermath now, but also for Steve who helps him through much of it. Sam has been a tremendous help, but when it comes to some things?  Sam is his friend, but his friendship with Bucky goes way back and there are portions of his life that remain closed to most people. And the experience to wake up decades later and everything around you has changed? That’s a pretty unique life experience that only he and Bucky share.

Four months after they first set out from Stark Tower they had found Bucky. Another three months later they are set to return from the Canadian wilderness they had been in during the last weeks. (They kept changing locations. Bucky was a little paranoid about HYDRA trying to find him and Steve agreed that moving now and then would be the best.)

But now they are finally heading back to New York and the familiarity of Stark Tower and the city he and Bucky always called home. (And Steve will see Darcy again. Thinking about her has been Steve’s beacon of light in the last months. And he begins to think that maybe he could try to ask her out at some point when they are back in New York and she isn’t too busy with the scientist wrangling.)

~*~                    

In many aspects Bucky is still affected by the decades spent as a brainwashed assassin, but in many other aspects his “real” personality has reemerged. (Or at least the Bucky Steve knew before the fall, as it seems Natasha and Bucky have known each other for quite some time, which makes Steve secretly question Natasha’s age again. But still that is one of the things they just don’t talk about. And “her” Bucky” seems to be even another person, some elements of the Winter Soldier mixed with personality traits of James Barnes.) But very often these kind of personality surges are triggered by absolutely ordinary events. For example during a simple conversation that occurs at the breakfast table while Tony Stark is sitting with them. (Sometimes Steve wants to strangle him.)

It was simple enough. They were having breakfast - it wasn’t really late - and then Darcy appeared to get something for herself and Jane, who seems to have started her research at dawn or never went to bed at all. Steve of course takes the opportunity to ogle everyone’s favorite assistant inconspicuously. (It’s the first time since they are back that he sees her up close and not only from afar. First Bucky was way to reluctant to go out and meet so many new people and then Darcy was away on a science mission with Dr. Foster. If possible she’s even more beautiful than before. God, he missed looking at her.)

After she leaves the kitchen with a smile on her face and a “Goodbye boys!”, Steve must have watched after her for a bit too long, because when he turns towards his plate again Bucky is eyeing him with raised eyebrows (and that face that 70 years ago meant “Why aren’t you doing something about that?”) and Tony is chuckling.

“What?” Steve shouldn’t have asked, but the words were out of his mouth before he could think about it.

“When will you ever get over yourself and admit that you’ve got it bad for the kid? It’s adorable. Also a bit pathetic. Come on Captain Virgin, ask her out! She’d be good for you and bring you up to date with … well, with basically everything.” Tony wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Steve doesn’t want to answer that. Not after all the teasing by Nat and Sam. If anyone else starts now, he might lock himself into his room for the next week. (And he still isn’t sure if he should find it insulting or flattering that Tony thinks him a virgin.)

After a few more minutes of relatively good-natured jabbing about Steve’s sex life (or lack thereof), Tony leaves. But not without a few parting words about it.

The minute that Tony had mentioned Steve’s “Virginity” Bucky had – with admirable self-control – repressed his laughter; when Stark had left the room, Bucky had kind of lost it and by now he was laughing at least for five minutes.

“You’ll let everyone think you’re a blushing virgin? Really, Steve?”

“I think it’d be rude to the women I’ve been with to brag about it. I couldn’t do that!” Steve has never believed in bragging about his relationships but at the moment he kind of thinks, that a little less discretion would have kept Tony off his back. On the other hand he doesn’t want to be seen as a dirty old man lusting after a woman. From what he knows, Tony has been very … liberal with his affairs in the past and the media is full of women telling about their night with Tony Stark before Iron Man.

“Well, no, you shouldn’t tell every little detail. But you can give them enough information against that idea…” He gets out between gasps.

“It’s just Tony…” Steve interjects.

“Just Tony? Is he always like that? Don’t you live together? From what Natasha told me, he’s like a dog who won’t let go off his bone in some matters. Like this one. Because that didn’t sound like it was the first time he had this ‘conversation’ with you…”

Steve just sighs. He really doesn’t want to talk about this.

In the following weeks, Bucky starts to insert as much innuendo and dirty jokes into conversation whenever Steve is around. (Sometimes, just sometimes Steve wants to go brain himself on his shield.)

~*~

Following that embarrassing moment when Bucky laughed about his inability to tell Tony Stark that he was totally wrong about Steve Rogers’s sexual experience, Bucky tries to sneak in as many innuendos in conversations as possible, while Steve is present. And the worst thing is: He doesn’t restrict himself to a time when he and Steve are alone, but _all the time_. Bucky is also making references to their past, and while Steve is ecstatic that Bucky is remembering more and more, currently it is really annoying.

Most of the time Bucky uses nature as a source of inspiration and talks about sowing, stirring and ploughing. But recently it seemed he has spread into the realm of food. Steve knows that this won’t end well for him. It never does these days. Yesterday when Bucky talked about ‘Steve eating out a nice girl sometime in the future’ Thor had been present and of course Bucky had disappeared when the Norse God had asked about this strange culinary custom and had let Steve be the one to explain everything. (Steve thanked every God he could think of for the fact that Bucky had not mentioned Darcy as part of this conversation. Thor probably wouldn’t take kindly to his comrades talking so crudely about his chosen ‘shield sister’, and rightly so.) At the end of his conversation with Thor Steve’s ears had been burning.

“Fondueing?” Tony asks frowning the next morning, when they are sitting at the breakfast table again. (Steve realizes that recently a lot of heart to hearts happen during or after breakfast. Maybe he should avoid that time of the day generally?) “What do bread and cheese have to do with that? Even though the chocolaty version is, in my experience, always a hit among women.”

Bucky snickers, while Steve just lets his head drop onto the table.

“Did your father never tell you about Steve’s fondue?”

“My father? Why would my father tell me about Steve and food?”

“Bucky, please…” is Steve’s weak and feeble attempt to stop this disaster in the making.

“Nope Steve, that story is hilarious. Tony’s gotta know!” Steve’s answer is just a groan.

Bucky clears his throat (a tiny bit dramatic in Steve’s eyes) and sits up straight. “Once upon a time, Steven Grant Rogers grew up as the nicest, politest Catholic boy Brooklyn had seen in a long time. He was of small statue, but his heart was enormous and he always fought for what was right, even though sometimes he shouldn’t have, because he’d try to take on people he couldn’t possibly defeat. And when Steve and I were at war with Germany, Stevie-boy here did something incredibly stupid. He asked your father, and Peggy Carter, to fly him over the border into German territory to infiltrate a HYDRA camp all alone and save me.” Bucky of course sees Tony’s skeptical glance and the ‘I want to say something attitude’ Tony so often exhibits. “But that’s not the point here. Steve here has never been good at talking with dames. He’d always put his foot in his mouth when it came to women and he was a goddamn nice Catholic boy, so he didn’t get most of the euphemisms there were back then about dating and sex. So when your dad asked Peggy to go for Fondue after that flight, Steve thought that ‘fonduing’ was one of these terms, he often didn’t get and asked about it. Thought your father and Peggy were up for a roll in the hay every now and then. Didn’t really sit well with Peggy, I think she shot at him for that, and your dad just loved to tell that story.”

By the end of Bucky’s little tale Tony is grinning widely. “So Steve, has your behavior towards the fairer sex changed at all since then?”

Now Steve feels like he’s in front of these reporters asking him all kind of stupid questions. (Not answering and ignoring is the key, Pepper had told them in their media training. The same applies for Tony when he’s in this mood.)

“Stevie, don’t be shy? Do you have any hard and fast rules when it comes to women? Are they fluid in any way or totally erect and unbreakable?”

Steve groans into his cup and Bucky is grinning widely, too.

Cackling like a madman Tony disappears from the room (now that he thinks about it, him, Bucky and occasionally Thor are the ones who are sitting in their kitchen the longest every morning… Figures. The ones without a real occupation. He really has to get himself something productive to do.) Steve is 100% sure that Tony will get even more persistent now… “Why did you do that?” he murmurs dejectedly. “Tony will be unbearable from now on…”

“Yap.”

“Why?” Steve whines.

“Because it’s fun, it might also force you to come clean with some stuff and it’s hilarious that he thinks you’re a virgin.”

The noise Steve makes now is not one that people would connect with Captain America, defender of the free and the brave.

~*~

Life in the tower has changed during his search for Bucky. At least a little bit, because they had all been dealing with Natasha leaking SHIELD’s data all over the internet. (It seems, that Tony, with the help of Jarvis, has collected all data about the Avengers and their associates and deleted it from the net along with a multitude of technical information and other stuff that concerned Peggy, Howard and his inventions.) They are still dealing with the aftermath of the Hydra reappearance and Natasha’s subtle prodding about asking Darcy out has just intensified. After a particular stern look over the breakfast table Steve stumbles over his words and asks Darcy out. (He doesn’t really get how he did it, what he said exactly and why she said yes to his stumbling, but he is happy.)

His first date with Darcy was a success. (He hopes.) The restaurant Natasha recommended was wonderful and they watched _Casablanca_ together in a small cinema in Brooklyn.

And oh that kiss!

Steve had to restrain himself not to hoist Darcy up against the wall, press himself against her much more intimately and explore her body a little bit more with his hands and mouth. (And he feels a bit like a predator for just thinking that.) Instead he lets his hands settle on her hips and lets himself be pulled closer by her. Just the fact that she was allowing him the liberty of a goodnight kiss was perfection.

He really had to restrain himself and felt so bad afterwards. He shouldn’t have pressured her into sharing such intimacies with him at such an early state. If Thor would hear about it, Steve would get a richly deserved pounding during their next training session.

~*~

Of course everyone knows about it afterwards. And – totally predictable – Tony mentions it the next morning in the kitchen after Darcy left for the labs.

“So… you and the kid? Good choice. She’ll help you get up to date in the world. In all aspects of life.” Tony’s smirk is a mile wide. Steve is resolved not to say anything.

“If you know what I mean Captain Goody Shoes.” Tony winks at him.

“Yes, I know what you mean, Tony.” Damn it, he should have stayed silent.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve been nailing the first date like a pro.”

“Get it? You probably haven’t really nailed here, Jarvis told me that you didn’t follow her into the apartment.”

“You asked Jarvis to monitor me?” Steve is somewhere between angry at the observation and embarrassed about Tony seeing Darcy and him during such an intimate moment.

Tony just shrugs. “Course I did. It’s like my personal soap opera with you two.”

“You… I can’t believe…that is… argh!” There is stuff Steve just doesn’t want to know, so he decides to stay silent to dissuade Tony from asking him more stuff or telling him other things he didn’t want to know.

But on the bright side Darcy came up to him during the morning and after a quick kiss (Control yourself, Steve!) she had whispered: “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to, but if you are really as inexperienced with women as Tony tells everyone, I’m the Virgin Mary.”

~*~

He was looking for Darcy. He really was.

But when he went into the labs, she isn't there. (It is 7 am, so it was a long shot looking there anyway.)  He heard someone moaning in the next room and went to look. (The door is slightly open.) He wishes he hadn't.

Jane and Thor both nude and entwined with one another, with Jane sitting on one of her lab tables and Thor standing in front of her, buried in her. Jane's hands are tangled in Thor's golden mane, while Thor's hands hold her gently and they share a deep, intimate kiss.

Steve retreats hastily (he is sure they haven't seen him), but he blushes for weeks when he meets them just thinking about it. Because Jane is beautiful, different like Darcy's beauty is different from Pepper's or Natasha's, but she is a stunning woman.

And Thor is beautiful in his own way, he has after all the physique of a god and the artist in Steve admires that as well. (Secretly he imagines drawing Thor like one of these Greek statues, but he would never voice that thought out loud.)

He also wants to do that with Darcy, not necessarily in the labs, because well, there is almost certainly always someone down there working, but maybe in his apartment or hers.

That thought, combined with what he witnessed involuntarily between Jane and Thor makes him avoid the labs for almost a month. He sometimes blushes just being in the same room with them, so being in a room with Jane and Darcy, where he witnessed Jane and Thor doing something he'd love to do with Darcy? Not a good idea.

(They’ve been on two dates so far and while he kissed her, he doesn’t think they are ready to take the next step yet. But he thinks about it quite often and imagines her naked, with her pale legs around his hips, with him buried in her, and her pale skin flushed from the exercise. Steve logically knows that especially in this day and age sex is viewed very differently than during the 1930s and 1940s, but he still can’t help but feel disrespectful towards Darcy in thinking like this about her, when she hasn’t given any indication so far that she wants to take their relationship a step further.)

~*~

His third date with Darcy is tonight and practically the whole tower knows. Well, the people that were - in the press - most commonly referred to as ‘Avengers, Family and Friends’.

“You know what third date means Stevie! God, I’m so excited, almost like a proud father.” Tony pretends to dry a tear, but Steve doesn’t really get it this time. So often he just sits there and listens to Tony babbling about stuff, and very often he knows what he means, but this time? Not a clue.

“Why does a third date have special meaning? It’s a totally arbitrary number of dates?”

“Oh my young Padawan. You still have a lot to learn about the 21st century.” At least he understood the Star Wars reference. Thank God for small favors and Darcy’s idea of marathoning this movie series with him. “The third date is vital in the making of a relationship.” Tony continues. “It is customary nowadays, that if a third date has been successful and both parties want to continue … this.” Heavens, Tony is making these vague hand gestures again. “At the end of the third date the man gets invited into the woman’s home.” That wiggling eyebrow again.

“But I’ve been in Darcy’s apartment before? So I have fulfilled this criteria already?” Most of the time the 21st century is pretty great, but sometimes Steve finds it confusing. Especially when Tony is being so cryptic about stuff. Darcy at least always explains modern lingo and customs. (God, he loves that about her.)

“Ahhh… On the third date you have sex, Stevie boy. You’re finished with your date, you get invited inside and then you bang her into heaven. Or she bangs you into heaven. You two exchange body fluids, do the hanky panky, fornicate, do the nasty, whatever you want to call it! Basically if you don’t fuck each other’s brains out at the end of the third date, you did something wrong.”

“Oh.”

“Now listen to uncle Tony! Unless you want to have super soldier children with my favorite assistant, you should wrap it before you tap it. That means that you used a cond…”

“I know what it means Tony. Birth Control was available in the 1930s, not everything that you have now, but condoms are not such a new invention.”

“Alrighty.” Tony smirks and tosses some brightly colored packages on the table in front of Steve. “There are Avengers themed ones. But I wouldn’t take one with Thor on it, having a fertility God on a piece of birth control doesn’t bode well for condoms. There are Captain America ones and didn’t you have a motto in your old days? ‘Each one you buy is a bullet in your best guy’s gun’. That DOES sound a lot better. But if you want to be really sure, you should take Iron Man to bed with you.”

~*~

In a way Tony was right. It was their third date, and now Darcy has invited him into her apartment, where they are sitting on her couch. To be more clear, Steve is sitting on the couch and Darcy on his lap and they were almost as entwined with each other as Thor and Jane in the labs a few weeks back. But still mostly clothed, even though Darcy had already lost her cardigan and had begun to unbutton his shirt.

When Darcy sheds the last piece of her clothing, he feels ecstatic. This was what he had dreamed about for months, he can almost not believe that it is really happening now.

~*~

“I hope you got some!” A few days after Steve slept over at Darcy’s apartment, Tony was still trying to pry some information from him, but so far Steve has remained silent. (His only outward reaction to Tony’s endless sexual suggestions has been – once again - blushing.)

“Really? You take him for a virgin?” Darcy smirks at Tony over the breakfast table. “You’ve got a lot to learn, boss man. Do you really think that a man looking like Steve and being on the road in the 1940s with a bunch of good looking showgirls has remained – and I quote you here, because Bruce told me about that night out – ‘pure as the untouched snow’? I mean seriously? For such a smart person, you can be kind of dumb sometimes…”

“Hey I just went with the evidence…” Tony interjects.

Darcy snorts into her coffee. “Evidence? What evidence? Your super active imagination? You didn’t have any evidence, Sherlock. You based your hypothesis on second hand witnesses, assumptions and the fact that some people don’t want to talk about their private lives… and your non existing people reading skills.” While Tony sits there with a slightly constipated look on his face, Darcy refills her cup. (And Steve is 100% sure that he sees Nat and Bucky trying to hide their smiles.) “That’s not very scientific, you do realize that?” Now Tony looks a little bit like a fish on dry land, he always prides himself on being as accurate as possible.

Very casually Darcy checks her watch. “Oh its 8 o’clock already, I think I have to head downstairs, Jane has been up for at least two hours already. And I suspect that you and Bruce will be down in a short while as well.” She gives Steve a quick kiss on the cheek - he loves those little gestures – gets up, and fills a thermos jug with coffee.

“Oh and to end this discussion once and for all and I mean that after this morning I don’t ever want to hear you talking about Steve’s and my sex life ever again: The sex is A-MA-ZING. He absolutely knows what he’s doing and boy, that serum gives incredible stamina. I’m really amazed at my ability to walk properly after the last week.” Now her grin is downright filthy and Steve has to think about last night again. (He wishes he could whisk her to bed again, but Darcy was quite adamant about getting up for work. Steve has to shift slightly in his chair, it wouldn’t do to become aroused again because Darcy has to leave for her work.) Tony is looking at him, his mouth hanging slightly open. Natasha and Clint are still trying their very best to hide their smirks in their coffee mugs. After another kiss (directly on his mouth this time, oh yes!) and a half hug from the side, Darcy disappears to the elevator.

Steve is blushing again. He can practically feel his face heating up and he knows that his entire face and his ears are beet red. He would never, ever talk that directly about sex in public, least of all to the people he considers his family. But well … Darcy has corrected all the assumptions Tony made about him. So at least he won’t have to subject himself to Tony’s teasing anymore.

(And it’s true. Tony never mentions anything about Steve’s ‘pureness’ ever again. Even though he occasionally alludes to the stamina thing Darcy said. But he is super careful about it and always makes sure that Darcy is at least one floor away.)

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written anything remotely romantic or sexy, so this is a learning experience.  
> I've got 3 chapters planned. Nr. 2 is like 90% finished. Nr. 3 a work in progress. I'll follow the movie canon somewhat...
> 
> Inspired slightly by the following post: http://sevensneakyfoxes.tumblr.com/post/87549805999/thegeminisage-unpretty-i-keep-thinking-about
> 
> Lots of thanks to Amerna, for proofreading and stuff :)


End file.
